


Building

by Castillon02



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25630270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castillon02/pseuds/Castillon02
Summary: Bond figures out how to reciprocrate.
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69
Collections: 007 Fest Fancreations





	Building

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 007 Fest 2020

Bond looked around his flat after Madeleine left. Unhung paintings, books stacked on the floor because he had no shelving units, TV on the floor as well because he hadn’t gotten around to buying a stand for it, couch that he slept on when he couldn’t muster up the energy to walk to his bedroom... All right, the flat definitely hadn’t done him any favors in the relationship.

Maybe he did have a ‘stressed mind.’ Shocking, for a man of his profession.

Bond got drunk on spite martinis and then he called the man he always called when he had a tricky question. “Q,” he said. “How do you make a house a home?”

“Swann broke up with you?” Q asked, sympathetic. “Do you want me to bring Eve and Bill over for more drinks?”

Not Tanner. And Moneypenny would only laugh. “I want you to help me put together an IKEA bookshelf,” Bond said. “It’s been in a box in my closet for eight months.” 

Q sighed deeply. 

“I mean---” Bond fumbled. Fuck. Why had he said that? 

“No, no,” Q reassured him. “It’s just that I’ve had a build-your-own-cat-tree in my closet since Christmas. You help me with mine, I’ll help you with yours?” 

Q did this a lot, giving Bond a chance to reciprocate. He wasn’t even slyly hinting that Bond should ‘come over’ to ‘help put some pegs in some holes.’ No, Q genuinely enjoyed being helpful, and he aways hoped that Bond would be able to enjoy that too. 

But what Bond always did in return was say things like, “Yeah, I’ll have to come over sometime and help you with that,” and then Q always caved, came over first, and gave Bond what Bond needed. And Bond never did end up helping him in return, maybe because he didn’t know how to have relationships where he wasn’t a leech. Didn’t know how, or didn’t dare to. 

Though that kind of thinking hadn’t got him anywhere good. Bond looked around his horrible, empty, half-put-together apartment again. 

“Bond?” Q asked. “It’s okay if...” 

If you need to take what you need. If you need to be a shitty friend. Again. 

Bond swallowed. “Tell you what,” he said. “How about I cab over to yours and we’ll get that cat tree up tonight?” 

“If you’re sure,” Q said, hesitant. 

“I’m sure,” Bond said firmly. He hung up and called for a cab right away. That way he wouldn’t back out and find that he’d spun yet another pretty lie. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3


End file.
